by Ton Zijlstra

Every 1st Tuesday of the new year is Disclosure Day (Openbaarheidsdag) in the Netherlands, the day when the National Archive opens up material and collections whose access restrictions have expired. It is generally a day approached with a sense of festivity by archivists (openness is their core public service and they’re also eager to show what cool stuff they have on record), and the hashtag #openbaarheidsdag shows a variety of tweets. Next to the National Archive, a range of local and regional archives participate, amongst which is the Frisian regional archive Tresoar. With both institutions I had the pleasure of working together last year (related to openness but unrelated to disclosure day). There is some momentum building to turn it into a nationally observed day by all archives, to celebrate the work and value of archives.

Photo of the National Archive building next to The Hague Central Station, by 23Archiefdingen CC BY-SA

In general the material opened up for the general public on a Disclosure Day wasn’t fully secret, but access was restricted to e.g. researchers. Some of it, such as personal correspondence and material from private archives however hasn’t been seen by anyone for multiple decades. Various time limits apply. Government documents are transferred to the National Archive after 20 years and most of it will be publicly accessible then right away (before that transfer the relevant Ministry itself determines openness, and freedom of information regulations apply). Where things like the privacy of living persons or national security are involved access can be restricted for a maximum of 75 years. That limit is set at the start, and per the first January after that limit expires, it becomes public. So for this year, it means that 1997 (20 yrs), 1967 (50 yrs) and 1942 (75 yrs) are the years for which new material is being published (as 50 and 75 years are commonly used time limits on access, and 20 yrs the legal default).

The amount of material published each year is substantial. Just the index of material published this year by the National Archives is over 1200 pages, and only the table of contents of that index of material is already 50 pages.

For this year the collection of newly accessible material contains the minutes of Cabinet meetings of the mid 1990’s (in which the Prime Minister berates his Ministers for leaking and carelessly letting opinions be publicly known), the personal notes of the researcher who on behalf of the government looked into the riots during the 1966 wedding of future Queen Beatrix, as well as personal notes from the same researcher when looking into the war history of a government minister alleged to have served in the SS. These haven’t been opened at all, since then, and the National Archive itself wondered what is in it that made the researcher claim years of secrecy for it. Also the diaries of the first woman Minister in the Netherlands and a prime minister in the late 1940’s became public.

Of special interest this year is the disclosure of the Dutch Trustfund (Nationaal Beheersinstituut) that between 1945 and 1967 managed all the Dutch funds and assets seized from German nationals after the war and from Dutch (suspected) collaborators and profiteers until after their court verdicts, as well as funds and assets of missing persons (such as jewish people deported by the nazis during the war, or in hiding and not yet returned) until their fate was known. The index of all persons for whom assets were managed, or from whom assets were seized, contains some 180.000 names, and is available online. The Dutch Trustfund archive itself hasn’t been digitised yet (as it wasn’t public yet), and stretches 2.5km of shelves.
Out of curiosity I did a quick search to look for my grandparents but none of them show up in the index. So there wasn’t some never shared family secret. 😉

Abraham Lincoln famously said in the 1860’s “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.“, and he’s right of course. George Washington already warned us a century earlier that “the greatest thing about Facebook is that you can quote something and totally make up the source.” Add to it the filter bubbles that algorithms create around you on Facebook, fake news and the influencing that third parties try to do, and you can be certain that the trustworthiness of internet is now even worse than it was in the 19th or 18th century.

“Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.”, Abraham Lincoln hit the nail on the head in 1864 already.

Dealing with crap on the internet however sometimes seems something only for professionals. Facebook should filter better, or be more transparent. Online forensic research like Bellingcat does is the only way to disprove online deception. The problem is that it absolves you and me way too easily of our own responsibility in detecting crap. If something seems too funny, coincidental or too conveniently fitting into your own believe framework, it should trigger us into taking a step back. To take time to determine for ourselves whether Lincoln really said that, whether a picture was really taken where and when it is claimed, and if a source really exists or can be determined as trustworthy.

To be able to detect crap on the internet, you need crap detection tools. My Brainstorms-friend Howard Rheingold and others have put together a useful list of crap detection tools (of which I very often use the reverse image search tools like Tineye, to verify the actual origin of a photo). The list is well maintained and growing. The listed tools help you quickly check-up on things before you share something and reinforce a vicious cycle making more and more social media platforms toxic.

Not spreading dubious material is a civic duty, just like cleaning up after yourself in a public space. This makes crap detection a critical digital information skill. Download or bookmark the list of crap detection tools, add some of the mentioned tools as plugins to your browser, and use it to your advantage.

Part of my 2018 plans is to do a bit more in Belgium with my company The Green Land. We’re looking for partners to work with locally. To gain a bit more visibility we are a sponsoring partner for the upcoming Open Belgium Conference, that takes place on March 12th in Louvain-la-Neuve. Get your tickets now and see you in Belgium this spring!

Since we moved in to our new home, the wifi has been a source of irritation. I had recreated the set-up we had in our previous house (main router on ground floor with a second access point on the second floor), but the difference is that we had wooden floors there between the first and second floors, here it is all concrete with rebar. So the irritants kept building up. The need to switch networks between floors, Sonos players dropping out of the network at unpredictable times, not seeing connected light bulbs unless I was near the stairwell. The internet connection itself isn’t the problem, with a 500Mbit symmetrical glassfiber to the home. Also the ground floor living room and most rooms on the first floor (where E and my offices are) have a wired ethernet connection.

I wanted a wifi set-up that allows seamless roaming around the house, and provides full coverage at high bandwidth. So a mesh-network it needed to be, and a way to either connect access points to ethernet cables, or have enough bandwidth between access points through a dedicated wireless backhaul connection. Various options exist, all rather pricey.

The cheapest one I found, Devolo Gigagate looked good at first glance. It provides a 5GHz back-haul connection, and provides lots of wired ports on the access points, so you could connect NAS or high bandwidth devices to it. However the regular wifi it provides is only a 2.4GHz network, as the 5GHz is reserved for the backhaul. This made me realize I needed to look for a 3-radio device (a 2.4GHz and 5GHz radio for wifi, and a 5GHz radio for the backhaul). Other solutions such as Google Wifi send a lot of data about your usage back to remote servers, and that is an absolute no-go. Ubiquity AmpliFi scored low in tests on actual speed delivered, and doesn’t offer any ports on the accesspoints. In the end it was a choice between Linksys Velop, and Netgear Orbi. Linksys has just one port available on an access point, and scored lower in speed than Netgear in reviews. Netgear is however the most expensive option. Figuring we really wanted to get rid of our irritations, I went for Netgear Orbi anyway.

Just in time for our, in terms of bandwidth, most demanding guests around New Year’s Eve, I installed the Orbi mesh. A main router, and two satellites. The main router is on the first floor, connected to ethernet. One satellite is on the ground floor, and one is on the second floor. Putting the router on the middle floor like this ensures it is able to see the two satellites most easily. It provides two networks, our own and one for guests, that both seamlessly cover all rooms.

Speed testing shows satisfactory results, and since the installation we no longer have any dropping connections, no more Sonos hick-ups and all the connected lights show up.

One step remains to do for connectivity in our home. That is running up a cat 6 ethernet cable to the second floor. As in a short while The Things Network gateway will be delivered, which needs a direct internet connection and will be installed at the highest point of the building.

Seven years ago I started writing end-of-year blogposts listing the things that happened that year that gave me a feeling of accomplishment. Borrowing from Ernst, from whom I copied this habit in 2010, I call them the annual Tadaa!-list (see the 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010 editions). I am always looking forward to doing the next thing, and that often means I forget to celebrate or even acknowledge things during a year. Sometimes I forget things completely (I once forgot I organized a national conference, because I left for an extended period of travel the next day). Although I have worked on improving that sense of awareness this year, it is still a good way to reflect on the past 12 months. So, a bit shorter and more personal than earlier years, and in no particular order, here’s this year’s Tadaa!-list:

Ten years ago, just before Christmas, I handed in my resignation and started my own business. It feels both longer and shorter. I’ve never looked back, it is the air that I breathe. I’m looking back on a decade of freedom. Even if always being the one committed to make things succeed and ends meet, especially when you hire people, is a relentless responsibility. There have been one or two short-lived rough patches (like when in 2010 three big contracts fell through at the same time). It brought the freedom to follow interests and emerging topics, to work with whom I choose, to travel extensively (with Elmine) and work anywhere, to continuously make up my own job. It, at least as importantly, brought the freedom to follow emotional needs, to stay at home for four months when our daughter was born, to spend time with my parents in the last weeks of their lives. Thank you to all who shared part of that journey with me this last decade. Looking forward to the next ones!Me sending in my resignation, December 2007

I continued my coaching sessions that I started last year. The coaching brought focus and awareness by providing a sense of calm, made me kinder to myself, and improved my effectiveness.

We moved house in April from Enschede on the German border, to Amersfoort in the middle of the country, reducing a lot of trips with 80 minutes one way. Extra time I can spend at home with the family, and the reduced commutes also make it possible to stay in closer touch with family, friends, peers, clients and go to events. I really enjoy our new spacious home, although leaving a city I’ve lived in for almost 30 years means a lot of routines need to be re-established. Exploring our new surroundings, by going out for lunch for instance, is now a standard part of our week. The move was the timely culmination of a goal set in 2013 to be ready to move by the end of 2016.Farewell party for our Enschede friends and neighbours.Building activity in our new home, and hanging out on the waterside terrace below the garden

Evaluated the relevance, effectiveness and impact of an NGO over the past 5-6 years. In the process I’ve used several complexity management and narrative inquiry methods with good results, and involving the NGO’s staff in a meaningful way. They not only changed focus as a result but also want to continue to use the evaluation and reflection methods for themselves. Doing the evaluation was useful for my own reflection as well, in terms of the strategic issues emerging for my own company.

I spent every Friday at home to be with our daughter. A joy to watch her develop.

Got to be there for friends, and friends got to be there for me. Thank you.

Helped create and launch a unique collaborative open data portal, the Frisian regional data platform. Initiated by the Province of Fryslan and the city of Leeuwarden who share the initial costs, the Province ensures its existence, and local governments can participate through a subscription. From the start the regional historic center and archive Tresoar participates on this basis. The unique aspect is that the Province ensures a base line service provision, so that the many small local governments can easily participate, who otherwise would see the need for data publishing infrastructure as too big a hurdle to start publishing open data. At the same time, data from any participant makes the data of the others more useful as it becomes easier to correlate or cover a wider area. This increases the likelihood of people using the data.Launching the Frisian data platform during the Connect.FRL conference

For the first time discussed a licensing deal, opening up the perspective of passive income.

Spent a day in London in April and September meeting with old friends. In remembrance of Tim who suddenly passed away early in the year, and as a consequence of our grief in recognition of how valuable it is to just spend time together sharing experiences and stories from our lives and our companies, discussing plans, doubts, and having a laugh with peers. Looking forward to a repeat in 2018. Thank you Patrick, Tony, Johnnie, Matt. Thank you Tim.

I’ve worked 1727 hours this year (in 46 weeks, 2 weeks of illness, 4 of vacationing, averaging about 38hrs/wk), which is more or less the same as last year. It is a significant reduction from the over 2400 hours a few years ago, but still about 200 hours above target, given I’ve spend a day per week at home with our daughter. The average should get closer to 32 hours per week in the next year. Being better equipped to choose, focus and say no, will help reach that goal.
Over the year I succeeded in keeping a good pace of reading fiction, 55 books in total. This is a good sign, as usually if I feel stressed I drop (and severely miss) my reading. I tried to find new (to me at least) authors to read. The books by Nnedi Okorafor, Chimamanda Adichie, Linda Nagata (the Nanotech Succession) and Tricia Sullivan I especially enjoyed, while the Bobiverse books, with AI Von Neumann probes going off script, were a lot of fun with its wide variety of storylines and angles to explore.

As per usual we will spend the last days of the year with dear friends, this time not in Switzerland as we often do, but in our new home in Amersfoort.
For 2018 a few exciting plans are already lined up, partly on new topics, in new countries and with some new clients and partners. Onwards!

Most of my open data work is with government entities to help change their processes, routines and perceptions to ensure steps towards open by design. I almost never really work with open data itself during those activities. So I decided to accept the challenge we ourselves issued with the launch of the Frisian Open Data Platform.

The challenge was to “find out what the planting year was of the monumental tree that is nearest the street light with the provincial ID number 696502”. Finding that out needed to be done by using data from the Frisian Open Data Platform.

Figuring out which data to use was easy. There is a provincial data set that contains the position and ID’s of all street lights for roads where the province is responsible (other roads can be the responsibility of a municipality, or the national government). There is another data set of the city of Leeuwarden that contains all trees of interest within the city limits. If the street light with the right ID is within city limits, it should be possible to answer the question with the tree data set of Leeuwarden.

So what I did was first look in the provincial data set for the right ID. I copied the coordinates that data set gives for that ID into Google Maps, to see where it is on the map, and it turned out to indeed be within Leeuwarden city limits. So the Leeuwarden tree list contains the answer I’m looking for.

Then I started up Q-GIS, which is an open source geo-data viewer (and in fact, a very capable open source GIS *editor* too, as Peter says in the comments). It is possible to connect a CKAN data portal, such as the Frisian platform is, to Q-GIS. Under the menu-option Plugins in Q-GIS one can install a CKAN plugin, which gives you a CKAN logo button in Q-GIS. Pressing that prompts a dialog in which you can specify the right address for the CKAN server you want to use. This was specified on the Frisian platform as https://ckan.dataplatform.nl/api/3/. I also needed to add a default folder that can be used to keep necessary files.

Now I could search within all the Frisian open data platform data sets right within Q-GIS, using that plugin. I first loaded a map of the Netherlands (the TOP10NL map, which is the most detailed map the Dutch Cadastre provides, as a zipfile of 2GB). I used the PDOK Dutch open geoportal for this, for which I had already previously installed the PDOK plugin, in similar ways as the CKAN plugin). Then I added the Provincial street light list, and the Leeuwarden tree list as layers on the map. I then scrolled the map to the location I had previously checked out in Google Maps.

In the screenshot below you see green dots on the red road. Those are provincial street lights. The rightmost green dot is the one we’re looking for. A bit further to the right you see a row of purple dots. Those are the trees, and one of these is nearest our green dot. Now, I visually judged which purple dot is the nearest, although you could calculate it from the coordinates in the data. Also there is some room for error, as most of the trees in that row were planted at the same time as it turns out. By clicking on one of the dots in Q-GIS you can see the data fields and labels attached to it, and that gave me the year of planting.

The map of Leeuwarden, with the street lights as green dots on the red road in the middle, and the monumental trees as purple dots.

At the top you see the depicted map layers (Dutch map top10nl, trees in ‘bomen’, street lights in ‘provfriesland’), below that, when you highlight a specific purple dot, under identification results (‘identificatieresultaten’), PLANTJAAR is the field with the year of planting.

Last week saw an end of an era. The program manager for open data of the Flemish government retired. While parts of the work will go on, no direct successor will be named to the role. At the annual conference of Information Flanders (#tiv2017), Noël van Herreweghe after 6 years of being the driving force behind Flanders’ open data team, said his goodbye during the opening plenary. His main and clearly heard message was that much is still to be done, and we’ve barely started on the path towards open by design. I hope the Flemish government and civil service will take this to heart. Now is not the time to reduce efforts, as the transition is only just in motion.

In the past 6 years Flanders has taken several steps that I think the Netherlands should follow. Based on the underlying legal framework, the Flemish government has taken pre-emptive decisions for all government entities within their scope about in what ways data can and should be published. It is no longer up to the individual agencies, if you decide to publish you must follow the established principles. In the Netherlands that is all still voluntary, and the principles are put forward as guidelines, not as must-follow rules. Similarly the Flemish government has adopted a URI strategy, using both machine and human readable URI conventions, which in the Netherlands is lacking.

For each of those 6 years my colleague Paul, representing the Dutch government open data team, and I participated in the Flemish open government days, and its successor the annual Information Flanders Meet-up. It gave us the opportunity to keep comparing Dutch and Flemish open data efforts, to learn from each other as well as laugh about the differences. A fixed feature on the agenda was eating a Portuguese fish soup the evening before the event in Brussels with Noël and his colleagues.

A ‘small bowl’ of fish soup, 2012 and 2015 editions

As Noël said, the work isn’t remotely done, and judging from the conversations we had with Noël last week, he isn’t likely to stop being active either. So I trust we will find ways of working together again in a different setting in the near future.

Yesterday saw the Frisian Open Data Platform go live. Initiated by the Province Fryslân, the City of Leeuwarden (the province’s capital), and the regional historic center and archive Tresoar it is a unique collaborative effort in the Netherlands. The Province initially proposed to create the platform, based on the notion that open data is more useful if it is available from local governments across the region, and seeking to avoid every local government needing to create their own infrastructure for publishing (especially an issue with smaller municipalities), and that creating a single point to search for regional and local data makes it more likely that data will be used. The Province invites all other Frisian government entities to participate in the platform.

Screenshot of the portal

Data can be hosted in the platform (the Province does this, but also very useful for smaller entities), but those that want to maintain their own infrastructure or already do can also use it as a register and increase findability that way (e.g. Tresoar has been publishing a lot of material, also in the form of linked data for a long time already).

The platform was launched during Connect.FRL, a conference bringing IT employers and students together to try and keep more talent in the region. There all three initiators presented themselves together and also provided insight how they currently use data internally.

The stand of the platform initiators at the Connect.FRL conference

The launch coincides with a challenge for students and others to solve a specific riddle with the now published data, to suggest a concept of how the data can be used, and to create a prototype.

I’ve been working with the City of Leeuwarden in 2012, as well as with the Province in the past 2 years. Employees of Tresoar attended our Mastercourse open data last year, initiated by the National Archives. All that combines now in together delivering this platform. It is especially great to note how currently there is palpable energy within all three participants to move this forward. In the coming time we will work to bring more participants to the table, expand the data on offer, and further align open data efforts in the region.

The upcoming GDPR, Europe’s new privacy regulations, was mentioned and discussed a lot. Such pan-European laws suggest that there is a generic way to approach a topic like privacy, or even an objective one. Nonetheless the actual perception of privacy is strongly culturally determined as well, Toon van Agt remarked during his presentation, and pointing to us Dutchies sitting on the front row. He gave the example of how in the Netherlands real estate transaction prices and mortgages on a house are publicly available (if not yet as open data I must add. Transaction prices are available as open data in the UK, afaik). Where in the Netherlands this is regarded as necessary to be able to determine who you’re dealing with if you buy or sell a house, in Belgium it would be unthinkable. In my own presentation I showed how open data from the license plate register is used in the Netherlands to prevent theft of petrol at gas stations. Again unthinkable in Belgium, mostly because of the fundamental difference that license plates in the Netherlands are connected to a car (and the car to an owner), and in Belgium to the car owner (and the owner to a car). Calvinism was put forward as a determining difference, resulting in Dutch window curtains being open, so everyone can see a) we have nothing to hide and/or b) we have the coolest stuff in the street :). Similarly the tax amounts and incomes of Norwegians are famously public, whereas in the Netherlands asking how much someone earns or even worse touting how much you earn yourself, is frowned upon and not suitable for polite conversation.

It would be interesting to create an overview of socially acceptable and unacceptable forms of transparency across Europe. To learn where further opportunities for open data are to be found, as well as to see where social barriers can be expected.

The quintessential difference between Belgium (r) and the Netherlands (l): curtains open or closed. Photos by Miguel Discart and magalibobois

Last week ten of the twelve Dutch Provinces met at the South-Holland Provincial government to discuss open data, and exchange experiences, seeking to inspire each other to do more on open government data. I participated as part of my roles as open data project lead for both the Province of Overijssel, and the Province Fryslân.

There were several topics of discussion.

The National Open Government Action Plan (part of the OGP effort), a new version of which is due next spring, and for which input is currently sought by the Dutch government.

Several examples were discussed of (open) data being used to enhance public interaction.

I want to briefly show those examples (and might blog about the other two later).

Make it usable, connect to what is really of significance to people
Basically the three examples that were presented during the session present two lessons:

1) Make data usable, by presenting them better and allow for more interaction. That way you more or less take up position half-way between what is/was common (presenting only abstracted information), and open data (the raw detailed data): presenting data in a much more detailed way, and making it possible for others to interact with the data and explore.

2) Connect to what people really care about. It is easy to assume what others would want to know or would need in terms of data, it is less easy to actually go outside and listen to people and entrepreneurs first what type of data they need around specific topics. However, it does provide lots of vital clues as to what data will actually find usage, and what type of questions people want to be able to solve for themselves.

That second point is something we always stress in our work with governments, so I was glad to hear it presented at the session.

There were three examples presented.

South-Holland put subsidies on a map
The Province of South-Holland made a map that shows where subsidies are provided and for what. It was made to better present to the public the data that exists about subsidies, als in order to stimulate people to dive deeper into the data. The map links to where the actual underlying data should be found (but as far as I can tell, the data isn’t actually provided there). A key part of the presentation was about the steps they took to make the data presentable in the first place, and how they created a path for doing that which can be re-used for other types of data they are seeking to house in their newly created data warehouse. This way presenting other data sources in similar ways will be less work.

The subsidy map

Gelderland provides insight into their audit-work
Provinces have a task in auditing municipal finances. The Province of Gelderland has used an existing tool (normally used for presenting statistical data) to provide more detail about the municipal finances they audited. Key point here again was to show how to present data better to the public, how that plays a role in communicating with municipalities as well, and how it provides stepping stones to entice people to dive deeper. The tool they use provides download links for the underlying data (although the way that is done can still be significantly improved, as it currently only allows downloads of selections you made, so you’d have to sticht them back together to reconstruct the full data set)

Screenshot of the Gelderland audit data tool

Flevoland listens first, then publishes data
The last example presented was much less about the data, and much more about the ability to really engage with citizens, civil society and businesses and to stimulate the usage of open data that way. The Province Flevoland is planning major renovation work on bridges and water locks in the coming years, and their aim is to reduce hindrance. Therefore they already now, before work is starting, are having conversations with various people that live near or regularly pass by the objects that will be renovated. To hear what type of data might help them to less disrupt their normal routines. Resulting insights are that where currently plans are published in a generic way, much more specific localized data is needed, as well as much more detailed data about what is going to happen in a few days time. This allows people to be flexible, such as a farmer deciding to harvest a day later, or to move the harvest aways over water and not the road. Detailed data also means communicating small changes and delays in the plans. Choosing the right channels is important too. Currently e.g. the Province announces construction works on Twitter, but no local farmer goes there for information. They do use a specific platform for farmers where they also get detailed data about weather, water etc, and distributing localized data on construction works there would be much more useful. So now they will collaborate with that platform to reach farmers better. (My company The Green Land is supporting the Province, 2 municipalities and the water board in the province, in this project)

Overview of the 16 bridges and waterlocks that will be renovated in the coming years

Various stakeholders around each bridge or waterlock are being approached

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About

Weblog since 2002 by Ton Zijlstra.
European citizen in a networked world. Based in the Netherlands, living in Europe, working globally. There are no Others. There is just me and many of you.

I write about how our digital and networked world changes how we work, learn, decide and organize. I explore the tools and strategies that help us navigate the networked world.
I am passionate about increasing people's ability to act (knowledge), and their ability to change (learning). Key-words: open data, open government, fablabs, making, complexity, agency.